Dell streamlines storage strategy

PC company Dell is planning to integrate its recent hardware manufacturer acquisitions into a single storage strategy, reports IT World Canada.

Over the past year, Dell acquired clustered storage vendor Exanet, data compression vendor Ocarina and storage area network vendor Compellent.

Dell says the acquisitions add layers on top of its buyout of midrange storage vendor EqualLogic.

The company indicated that it is working to pull its acquisitions together under a single management layer, allowing file migration, replication and deduplication between storage platforms.

Several Compellent partners CRN spoke to voiced concerns over Dell's reputation for taking deals direct and how the integration of their partner programmes could affect their margins.

Partners also fear Compellent's hands-on approach and whether personal contact with the channel would be lost if the firm was swallowed up by a much larger rival.

However, Dell storage executives believe they have the goods to compete head-on with the major storage players (including EMC) in the virtualised disc storage array and cloud computing sectors, states Cnet.

Dell claims it is set to offer both server and storage-based platforms, which include the Ocarina data compression and deduplication technology, to cloud services providers.

According to CTO Edge, Dell is creating what it calls a 'Fluid Data Architecture' that promises to simplify the challenges IT organisations have with managing large volumes of data.